Media Tuesday - hot topics and topics that make us hopping mad! 3 May 2011

Posted: 3 May 2011 | News - Newsletter | Categories: Democracy and Governance, Media Freedom and Performance

And here what’s on the menu this Tuesday!

  • Service Delivery – an Election Issue? #MMAEAP Tweet-up coming up!
  • World Press Freedom Day: SA media silent!
  • Is media biased in coverage of police?
  • And our newest MMC!

Second Election Accountability Pack Tweet-up: Political mudslinging and Service delivery issues! 

The countdown is on and the 2011 local government polls are literally almost just around the corner, and campaigning fires don’t look to be about to die anytime soon. As parties and leaders use each day, holidays not excluded, to make final attempts to woo in voters, what is of great importance is the promises they are making to potential voters. Are they giving you answers to the real service delivery problems you face in your everyday lives, or is the concentration on tearing opposition leaders down? And what is the media’s effectiveness in communicating and critically analysing these promises? Is the media in their coverage of campaign trails, asking the right questions? Is the media questioning the truthfulness and sustainability of promises presented? Or is the media merely providing a platform for political party spats?

One of the most pressing issues is one of service delivery and as recent protests have shown, its lack thereof. Consider these statistics:

·         In 2008 there were 27 service delivery protests recorded.

·         In 2009 that number jumped to 105.

·         In 2010, it was another record year for discontent – with 111 recorded protests.

2011 also got to a fiery start with lots of service delivery protests reported, the latest of which being the Zandspruit informal settlement one in Johannesburg, and the unforgettable one being the Ficksburg protest, which resulted in the horrific death of a protester, Andries Tatane. In between the mad mobs and shock factors are the key issues being probed and reported on correctly? Are the media doing digging into the multiples angles in their coverage of service delivery issues? What we usually read on in the news about service delivery protests is the violence associated with them, and hardly on the real issues behind the protests. We normally read stories about such protests as “service delivery protests”, but nothing on what the people are unhappy about. Is it not the media’s role to probe exactly what the people are complaining about, so that the right question could be posed to politicians about those exact complaints? If the media does not tell us what the people’s grievances are, how can politicians give the right answers to people’s demands, and be held accountable to their promises.

Our second of a series of three Election Tweet-Ups, scheduled to take place tomorrow (May 4, 2011) from 12:00 -13:00 aims to change all that by dissecting these issues and seeking to solicit a list of right questions that journalists should be asking the media The tweet-up will be engage with the question of: Should service delivery be looked upon as an important elections issue for the media and politicians?

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and MediaMattersZA, are teaming up with Daily Maverick and Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ) and expert partners to launch 'Piercing the Promises – Election Accountability Packs' for journalists. The ‘Packs’ are drawn up with the help of a panel of experts to come up with questions politicians can’t wriggle out of, and we’re hoping these could make for interesting election headlines. “This second ‘Election Accountability Pack’ aims to arm journalists with key questions that will help hold local government election candidates accountable when it comes to service delivery”, says MMA’s press release.

 

As the above stats highlight, it’s because of the increasing prevalence of service delivery protests that we care, and so should you! Join us on 4th May 2011, on twitter or in person, as Dr Steven Friedman (Centre for the Study of Democracy) and Isobel Frye (Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute) debate the issues involved.

Time: 12pm – 1pm

Date: Wednesday 4th May 2011

Place: Institute for the Advancement of Journalism, 9 Jubilee Road, Parktown

Follow: @mediamattersza

Hashtag: #MMAEAP

World Press Freedom Day 2011 – where is the coverage? 

Today, 3 May, marks the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day as declared by The United Nations General Assembly “to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991”, according to Wikipedia.

Given the struggles for media freedom that South African media, especially print media, is faced with, shouldn’t this day be among the top headliners on our front pages? Of course the death of Osama Bin Laden is big news, and so is the royal wedding, and Zuma’s daughter’s wedding (are they???), but so should World Press Freedom Day. Local media doesn’t seem to think so though, because this story received less coverage, if any at all! With the proposed Statutory Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill among some of the most contested issues between the government of the day, politicians and the media as well as more critically the threats its poses to media freedom,  One wonders where is the media in all of this? It is the media’s freedom afterall that is under threat by these proposed legislations that have been until after the Local Government Elections 2011.

Among the few that managed to mention the story is today’s The Citizen, which featured a story on page four about the National Press Club calling for an immediate release of a detained South African photographer Anton Hammerl by the Lybian government. Feel free to alert us on any other coverage of the day you came across in your daily news consumption!

It seems like our media matters enthusiast feel the same way about media freedom day fatigue.

One Media Matters Commentator and enthusiast, Akanyang Merementsi, asked this on our Facebook page on Sunday: “With International Media Freedom around the Corner, I expected Mail & Guardian (last week Friday), Sunday Times, Sunday Independent and City Press (all 3 today) to have carried sort of a special edition for this day especially given the threat to Press and Media Freedom in the country with MAT and POIA - but they did not, or at least not to my satisfaction. Why is this the case?” Good question, we say!!!

Mr. Merementsi also went on to put into context the threat that media, both locally and internationally, are under. He mentioned on his Facebook page a story he says was reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) last week about a break-in at the offices of leading NewsDay newspaper where computer hard drives of senior editorial staff were stolen – an incident suspected to be politically motivated.

He also mentioned Mzilikazi wa Africa, who he said had his notes taken by members of the police after he reported on Bheki Cele’s R500 million lease deal. These, he says, are good examples of threats to press freedom, and the reasons why this day is of great significance to the media in this country, and should be covered as such. Why the silence then, when it’s the media’s chance to voice opinion?

But at the same time the positive impact and contribution of the media must be highlighted and not forgotten on this momentous day. William Bird, Director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) says

“Our media is what makes our democracy what it is today. It is through our media that the nation got to witness violations of citizens’ basic human rights last month at the hands of the police. The MAT and POI Bill are such contested issues today because the media brought them to the surface where they are open to criticism and scrutiny. Why then, is the media failing to use this day and the opportunity it offers to blow their own trumpets for good work that they do?”

Yes, the media has its shortcomings, but that should not cloud the brilliant work its doing. The media should use this day to honour dedicated journalists who go out to get stories and bring them to the public’s attention, despite the dangerous working conditions they face. One such case is that of a photographer detained in Lybia. Why is our media silent on a day like this? Help us understand!

 

Police heroes vs. police brutality victims: where do media’s priorities lie? 

Yes another case of police brutality has emerged, this time in Pretoria. EyeWitness news reports that a Pretoria man claimed to have been kicked by police officers at a filling station, and police said the whole incident took place while a CCTV camera was rolling.

Over the past week, reports also emerged of a Kempton Park woman who was allegedly shot and killed by a police officer after the woman allegedly crashed into the cop’s car. The details of the case are still a bit sketchy as other reports claim the woman was shot for other reasons other than the actual crash. These two incidents follow a case of police brutality which ended with the loss of life by a protester in Ficksburg.

Following the Kempton Park incident, Police Commissioner Bheki Cele over the weekend came out in criticism of the media coverage of cases of brutality, and criticised “the media for not treating the police the same way as they focus on the victims of police brutality.” These comments relate to the funeral of a police Constable killed in Katlehong the previous week, that did not get as much media attention as did the reported cases of police brutality.

Yes the media have the responsibility to report on both issues of police brutality and police heroics but Bheki Cele seems to suggest a bias in the media’s handling of these issues.

Is the Commissioner right in his criticism? Is media affording a biased coverage to Cele’s force? Is the media not telling us about the force’s heroics and concentrating too much, or only, on police’s wrongs?

And this week’s MMC! 

And last but not least, introducing our newest MMC, whose heart is in newspapers: Knut Cayce. Born from a journalist mother, Knut Cayce grew up in the company of journalists and was privy to news and information which did not always make it into print. He later acquired some experience as a court reporter, and got an assistant editor’s job at Grocotts. Join in the discussions on our facebook and twitter pages, and add your voice to our media debates, who knows, the next Media Matters Commentator could be you!